As computing technology has developed, user interface devices have advanced correspondingly. User interfaces have become increasingly significant in the usability of a computing device.
One particular user interface becoming increasingly popular is touch screen or track pad which uses an array of capacitive sensors using high impedance capacitance substrates. The sensor array is typically connected to detection logic via a portion of the sides of the array. The sensor array is divided up into rows and columns each with corresponding capacitive sensing elements. In order for a signal of a capacitive sensing element to be processed, the signal must travel though the rest of the row or column to be received by the detection logic. The greater the distance from the connection of the sensor array, the greater signal loss that occurs due to series impedance as the signal travels through the array to the detector logic. For example, for a sensor array having connections on the bottom and right, signals registered in the upper left corner will experience signal loss as the signals travel through the array connections. In contrast, signals registered at the bottom right of the array will have much less signal loss. The non-uniform signal loss characteristic may lead to inaccurate position determination across the face of the user interface panel. For an array of high impedance row and column sensors, the reduction in sensitivity occurs worse at the corner that is furthest away from the detection logic connection.
Thus, conventional user interface designs have signal loss issues as signals from sensors remote from the connection of a sensory array are impacted by the series impedance of the sensor array.